


Shinigami Tales

by lilyntlrs



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Pasts, Foster Care, Gen, Ghosts, M/M, morgues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2019-10-17 18:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17565845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyntlrs/pseuds/lilyntlrs
Summary: Gray, after a series of unfortunate events happen, decides to kill himself, just to end up as a ghost. As he stays a ghost, finds out things he would never find out about himself and others, just for those things to end up even more unfortunate.





	1. Chapter 1

It would only take a couple of pills for Gray to be gone. No one alive cared about him anyway, why even keep existing?

He sat on a toilet in a public bathroom, a bottle of pills in one hand and a water bottle in the other. He had just been fired that day, after several other bad things (including, but not limited to his girlfriend breaking up with him and losing his apartment) also happening that week. He had considered committing suicide for weeks now and finally decided to do it. Setting down the water bottle on the floor of the stall, he opened the bottle with the sleeping pills for his insomnia, diagnosed months ago. One, two, five, seven, more fell into his hand. He threw them into his mouth and grabbed the water bottle to help the pills down his throat. He put the bottle with pills back into his pocket and threw the empty water bottle into the trash can.

Standing up, he unlocked the stall’s door and left the empty public bathroom. He headed to the nearest bus stop to wait for a bus, hoping to fall asleep into that peaceful death he wished so much for. However, what he hoped for didn’t happen. He fell asleep peacefully at the bus stop.

 

"Hey!"

Gray's eyes flew open when he heard someone scream at him. A brunette stood over his strangely weightless body.

"Huh?" Gray stood up, looking around and checking his surroundings. He stood in a room that reminded him of his therapist back when he was a kid. "Where am I?"

"Hell." the girl told him, a flat look on her face.

"You're joking, right?"

She shrugged.

"Some of us call it hell. Since we're ghosts and all."

Gray's eyes widened as he stared at her.

"So... I really died?"

"You want to see your body to make sure?"

Gray was in shock. He found it hard to believe he’d managed to kill himself. His hand flew up to his hair, fingers running through it.

"Who found me... dead?"

The girl shrugged again.

"Don't know her name, but I know she works at the coffee shop across the street from the bus station. The one you died at. Was she your girlfriend or something? She looks pretty nice."

"I don't have a girlfriend."

"So you play for the other team?" the girl teased, smirking.

Gray shook his head furiously.

"No! I mean, no, my girlfriend just broke up with me."

"Is that why you offed yourself?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "I'm surprised they even let you become one of us."

"One of the reasons." Gray's lips thinned and he folded his arms. "Why are you like… this?"

"Alcohol."

Gray nodded. The girl probably drank her worries away. Gray stood up from the couch-bed and unfolded his arms.

"Gotcha. So. Is this... the only place here for us?"

The girl shook her head, amused expression on her face.

"We're ghosts, Gray. We get to go anywhere."

He turned around and stared at her dead in the eyes. What the-?

"Why do you get to know my name but I can’t know yours?"

The girl laughed at him.

"Isn't it obvious?” the girl said, laughing at him. “I have to make sure you don't fuck up this life. I've been here for a while."

"You still didn't tell me your name," he remarked, narrowing his eyes

"It's Cana."

"Cana? That's an unusual name."

"So is Gray."

Gray frowned at Cana, "It's short for Grayson!"

“I’m joking, jeez. I knew it was Grayson.” Cana grinned and punched his arm.  
“What else do you know about me?” Gray asked as he took a couple steps away from the her

“Everything” she assured, then winked at him.

“So you know everything about me and I get to know basically nothing?” Gray snorted and looked around the room, searching for an exit in case he had to get away from… whatever she was.

“Well, you really haven’t asked,” Cana said with a shrug, her dark hair swaying over her shoulders. Dramatic.

“Seriously?” He ran his fingers through his hair and he stared at the ground. He couldn’t believe it. He was a ghost? Were most ghosts because of deaths like his?

“Uh, yeah.”

A million questions popped into his head. None about her, though - only about being a ghost.

“Then, why a ghost?”

“You mean, why are we ghosts?” When he nodded, she let out a hum as if thinking. “Didn’t your parents teach you about ghosts when you were little?”

Gray recalled his very forgettable childhood - if someone would call it childhood, being sent from one foster home to another as a letter no one wanted after his parents passed back when he was small. No memories of ghost stories came to him. Neither from the horror movies he’d watched once he was out of the system.

“No, not really.”

“Damn.” Cana sighed, raising her arms to her head as she paced back and forth around. “ _Everyone_ knows ghost stories! Hell, most of the time only kids can see us!”  
“I knew what ghosts were! Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Then you know why we’re ghosts! You committed suicide, damn it, _of course_ you’re gonna be a ghost!”

“But you died of alcohol poisoning. That isn’t a suicide method.”

Cana turned around sharply and stared at him.

“How do you know?” she asked, her arms falling back down to twist in front of her chest.  
“You can’t kill yourself by drinking alcohol!”

“Geez, weren’t you taught about shit as a kid?”

“You’re one to talk, knowing _everything_ about me!”

“That was a joke, Gray.” The girl scoffed, turning around and away from him

“Didn’t sound like a joke.”

“Sorry,” she said, tone dripping with sarcasm, and scoffed again. “All I know is your name and how you died.”

“How much about how I died?”

“I’ve already told you how much I know, Gray!”

“Seriously?”

Cana turned back around, her face full of rage.

“Yeah!”

“Then I should at least get to know that much about you!” he told her, pushing his lips together as he frowned.

“Fine!” she called, throwing her hands in the air. “I was a raging alcoholic! There, you happy?”

Gray saw the pain written on her face, heard it in her voice.

“Touchy subject?” he offered, growing confused when she only shook her head. “Why did you do it, then?”

“Why do most people drink?” she asked bluntly.

“Stress?” Gray offered, unsure.

“Yeah, you could say that.” The pain had yet to leave her voice. “There’s more to it. Like how I actually like drinking, too.”

A pregnant pause filled the room.

“Uh, so, what do you like to do for fun as a ghost?” Gray asked, trying to get through the silence. The soft sadness vanished from her face and she grinned.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

 

Things turned out, Gray was still in his city, just a couple blocks away from where he died. As they headed from the fifth floor of the building he’d woken up in, he saw all the ghosts. There were just so many of them… And they all seemed to reside there, too. Sometimes, forgetting the high murder rates was truly a bliss.

“Do you want to visit the coffee shop? The one the girl who found you works at?” Cana asked.

She’d brought him to a nearby park. The two sat across from each other, him on a fountain ledge and her on a bench just by it. Gray had lived in the city his whole life. He could almost recall this park. Maybe it was the one he visited with his parents before their untimely deaths. But maybe all parks in the city looked like this, too.

“No.”

“Aw, why not?” Cana called with a pout.

“I’m the only thing people will be talking about.”

“Pff. It's been a couple hours. They probably already forgot you.”

Gray’s eyebrows rose high and he gaped at her.

“I’ve only been dead for a couple hours?” he yelled, scaring some birds away.

“Uh, yeah?” she said, rolling her eyes. “I thought you already knew that.”

“How could have I known? If it’s only been a couple hours, why didn’t you just take me to my body?”

“You didn’t ask for that” she explained, shrugging. “You asked what I did for fun, so here we are.”

“Yeah, and I also didn't know only a couple hours had passed!” Gray yelled again. “I thought it’s been days, not hours!”

“Seriously?”

Gray nodded vigorously, throwing his hands up

“Do you at least know where my body is now?”

Cana nodded and stood up.

“You want to go see it now?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Gray asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You didn’t want to earlier, so.” Cana shrugged.

“That’s your excuse?” he asked, following her closely.

“You didn’t want to earlier.”

Gray stopped dead in his tracks as Cana continued to walk. He sighed and ran one hand through his hair. How much time he had to spend with this girl? This--she--was really taking a toll on him.

“You coming?” she called over her shoulder.

Gray nodded and ran ahead to catch up with her.

  


It took them an half hour to get to the place his body was taken.

“I’m in the police department now?”

Cana raised her eyebrow and stopped halfway through the door.

“You could have been murdered with poison, duh.”

Gray stared at the building from outside while Cana entered. Gray followed her inside after some time of staring at the building.

“You coming?” Cana asked, waiting for him on the stairs. “We got another couple flights of stairs before we see it.”

This was all so weird. He couldn’t wrap his head around being… dead.

“Uh, yeah.” Gray shuffled his way over to the stairs, not ready to embark down them to see what lied ahead.


	2. morgue time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ooo natsu is entering!!! yay!!!

Natsu didn’t think it would be such a hectic day at the morgue. A twenty-something was brought in, along with them the police. The whole ordeal had been about 20 minutes ago. Now he rested in the office, eating his second bowl of spicy chile chicken instant ramen of the day while one of the office cats -- who he had fondly named Happy -- was licking the container of the last bowl.  
All Natsu knew right now about the case was his name: Grayson Fullbuster. The name sounded familiar, just the way he did, but Natsu couldn’t put it down. Maybe they went to school together as kids? Then again, Magnolia was a big city -- Grayson could have come from anywhere. Natsu shook his head at the thoughts and threw away the empty bowl. He was just imagining things. Like that one time a few months ago, with the girl, he thought one of his brothers had dated.  
Natsu heard footsteps coming down the steps outside as he walked back inside the office. He didn’t really care. It was probably one of those annoying cops that worked on the boy's case asking about when the autopsy would be performed. They wanted to confirm the death was a suicide, but that couldn’t happen until the actual pathologist -- also known as his boss -- arrived from his lunch break.

“Natsu?” came from the open door.  
Natsu walked back into the main room, eyes going wide when he saw his best friend standing there, still in her coffee shop uniform.  
“Luce!” he grinned at the blonde. “You on your lunch break now?”  
She only shook her head, looking very sombre.  
“Evergreen let me go home early today, after--,” Natsu saw tears filling in her eyes as she paused, her voice growing softer “After I found--,” some tears left her eyes. “I found a dead body.”  
Natsu blinked.

“You okay?” What the hell was he thinking?! Of course, Lucy wasn’t okay, she was crying for god sake! “Anything I can do for you?”  
“You don’t mind if I wait around here a bit, right?”  
“Wait for what?”  
“His body would most likely end up here, right?”  
“We did get a dead body here just a bit ago,” Natsu said as he walked over to the cooler that was holding Grayson’s body and started opening it. “His name’s Grayson Fullbuster. Once Sting gets here, we can do the autopsy to figure his death out.”  
Lucy came over to stand behind him, sighing.  
“That’s the guy,” she told him, her voice gloomy. “Has his family been contacted?”  
“Yeah, his sister’s coming by soon, she’s flying from Crocus” Natsu confirmed with a nod as he put the body back into the freezer. “Well, at least that's what I’ve been told. Whoever’s working on his case knows nothing.”  
“He has a case?” Natsu nodded, the two heading over to the office room together.  
“I think homicide is working on it since they don’t know the death yet,” he told her, sitting down in a chair he occupied just minutes ago. Lucy sat across from him in another wheeled chair, taken by Happy.  
“Couldn’t you just do an autopsy now?”  
“Luce, I’m just a mortuary technician!” Natsu said with a laugh.  
“Hasn’t stopped you before,” Lucy called back with a small smirk.  
“That was three years ago!” Natsu turned away from her, frowning. “I had just started working here back then, anyways,” he mumbled, causing her to laugh nervously.

“I would have done the same if I were you, Natsu” Lucy whispered. Natsu turned back around just to see more sadness in her eyes. “No one thought she was going to die this soon.”  
“I’m still getting over the fact she was murdered.” Natsu’s frown darkened. He tried not to think about it, leaning into his popped up hand.  
“It wasn’t your fault,” Lucy said, resting her hand on Natsu’s knee. “Everyone thought she was just going out on a normal date...”  
“I could have stopped her!” Natsu exploded with anger, scaring Happy to under a nearby desk. “I should have stopped her! Lisanna should still be alive, Luce!”  
They had gone through this conversation about a million times now. Natsu knew there was nothing he could have done, but... He wished that his other best friend, the girl who convinced him to become a mortuary technician to just so they could work together, was still alive. He wished she was the one he could be waiting on with Lucy, instead of his boss.  
“We all wish that! Did you not see Elfman at her funeral?” Lucy called back.

Everyone had been affected when Lisanna died. But no one had gone through it as hard as Lisanna’s siblings or Natsu had. He was still pissed the man that the police convicted was not guilty.  
“You still don’t understand, do you, Luce?”  
“What are you trying to say, Natsu?” Before he could answer, the staircase-side door, catching their attention.

“Yo! Natsu!” Sting called out.  
“In here!” Lucy scooted a bit away from Natsu before Sting entered the room.  
“Oh, hey, Lucy,” Lucy slightly waved her hand at the blond as he entered the room. “What do we know about the new body?” asked Sting, exiting the room to grab a mug of water. Natsu knew Sting never read the files on the bodies beforehand. Heck, Sting barely even wrote in the files when needed be.  
“His name’s Grayson Fullbuster,” The mug could be heard dropped, perhaps breaking. Both Lucy and Natsu stood up and exited the office in a haste to see if Sting was okay. “What the heck was that for?”

“Shit.” Sting’s favourite mug, a plain, white mug with a really bad pun upon it, was shattered into what seemed to be a million pieces. Sting began to pick the pieces up, Lucy helping as Natsu grabbed a hand towel.  
"You okay?" Natsu asked, trying to mop up away the water.  
"I can always get another one, relax," Sting waved it off with a cheeky grin.  
"I wasn't talking about the mug." Natsu stood up and threw the shards in the nearby trash can. "You know the guy?" Sting looked away from his technician as he stood up, walking over to the trash can to throw some shards away.  
“You could say he’s an old friend.” Natsu raised an eyebrow.  
“From those days?” Sting nodded his head. Natsu didn’t have to prod for more answers; he knew everything he needed now.

“Which sibling was contacted?”  
“His sister.” Sting sighed again, his lips tightening as he frowned.  
“From what days?” asked Lucy, curiosity filling her brown eyes.  
“Doesn’t matter,” chided Sting. “Can we perform the autopsy later?” Natsu shrugged.  
“They kind of want to know his cause of death soon,” Sting rolled his eyes as he huffed. “Homicide is working on his case.”  
“I just need to take a break.” Sting strolled out of the room, leaving the confused duo in the morgue room alone. Sting was never like this!  
“I should go back now,” mumbled Lucy. Natsu nodded at her. “See you tonight?”  
“It’s movie night already?” Lucy nodded.  
“Your pick tonight,” Lucy began to leave the room, just to pause at the door. “And before you ask, we aren’t watching Avengers for the fifth time tonight.” She smirked before turning back around as she closed the door as she exited.

“We are totally watching Avengers tonight,” Natsu told himself as a cold breeze blew through the whole morgue while the mortuary technician walked back to the office room. Natsu, unsure if he left a cooler door open, checked all the doors, making sure they were closed properly. They were all closed, so the breeze had to be another thing: the ghost of someone.  
“You can come on out, you know,” he called out after a bit of wandering around the morgue, in search of a ghost.  
“What?” asked Sting, walking back into the morgue. Something, or perhaps someone, caught the corner of Natsu’s eye. Natsu shook his head, trying to get the new found thoughts in his head for what it may have been.  
“It’s nothing,” Natsu replied, after hesitating for a bit. Sting rose an eyebrow and shrugged as he walked into their office room.  
“If you say so,” Sting walked back out with the files on Grayson that were newly acquired. “So Gray was found at a bus station?”  
“Yeah, Lucy found him.” Sting’s eyebrows rose higher than Natsu thought was possible for the blonde.  
“Lucy found him?”  
“That’s what I said, innit?”  
“I don’t get it,” Sting muttered with a sigh. “They think he was murdered?”

“That’s why he’s here instead of another morgue.”  
“Let’s just get this autopsy done and over with.”  
“You sure?” Natsu asked, seeing the pain on Sting’s face. “I can perform the whole autopsy if you don’t want to.” Sting hummed a bit as he shook his head.  
“I’m fine doing the autopsy,” Sting told the other, his voice rising above an octave at least. Natsu rose an eyebrow at his friend and boss.  
“And I’m related to Dragons,” The sarcastic comment rolled straight out of the man's mouth without warning, to Sting or himself. 

“Seriously, Natsu. I’m fine.” Sting’s hands were at chest level, palms faced out towards Natsu. Natsu wasn’t buying this bullshit, but it was better off just to let Sting do what he felt comfortable with now. Maybe Sting would leave later and Natsu could see if a ghost was lingering around as he hoped. Hopes and dreams really don’t come true, something Natsu had known since he was young, but that didn’t stop him for what was about to begin.  
After a long pregnant pause intertwined with the occasional asking one another to pass a tool to the other, the ghost Natsu swore he felt still hadn’t arrived, but questions from Sting did.  
“Natsu?” Sting asked, snapping him out of some sort of daze. “I asked you a question.”  
“Huh?” Natsu rose an eyebrow and tilted his head towards the tools.

“No,” a small, fake smile appeared to stretch upon the blond’s face. Man, the air sure was very awkward today around them. “What you think happens after death?”  
“Well,” Natsu paused for a moment. Should he tell Sting about the ghosts he sees or not? “I think some get turned into ghosts.”  
With a hum and a nod, Sting began to ask another question. “What about Gray?” Natsu shrugged.  
“Could be a ghost, could be where ever the not lost souls end up. We don't know.” Sting frowned at Natsu.  
“That’s not helpful at all!” Sting whined, which made Natsu believe his friend was slightly okay with the whole “friend who he grew up with was now dead” thing.  
“Well what do you want me to say?” questioned Natsu, this time whining a bit. “That he’s a ghost and he’s here!” The corner blob moved again, this time out of Natsu's vision. The younger of the two turned around, not to see the ghost he was hoping to, but nothing.

“He isn’t here, that’s for sure!” Natsu rolled his eyes as he sighed. Sting frowned at his coworker.  
“That’s not cool, bro,” Natsu blinked at Sting. “His body is right here. Apologize to him!” Natsu blinked again.  
“Uhh, apologize to him?” Sting nodded. “I’m sorry?” Natsu’s eyes darted between Sting and the body, confusion plastered all over his face.  
“Are you though?” Sting asked, cocking his head a just a tiny, little bit to the side.  
“I, I guess?” Sting folded his arms over his “lab coat”, frowning. “I am!” Natsu’s mood suddenly burst up. “I’m sorry.” 

“I’m just joking with ya. You didn’t have to apologize to his body,” Sting broke out into a smile that went from ear to ear.  
“Seriously?” asked Natsu, just to get a hum of approval from Sting. The two continued to perform the autopsy until Sting stopped them for a moment.  
“There are traces of some sort of pill or drug here,” Sting whispered, almost in shock. He turned and looked up towards Natsu, who was sporting a confused look also. “We still got those things to bring up to Forensics on hand, right?”  
“Yeah, you want me to go get one?” Sting hummed an approval.  
“Just to see if this was the cause of death or not.” Natsu handed Sting the container needed for forensics to test for the traces they just found. Sting took the traces out, putting it directly into the container, before closing it and handing it to Natsu. Natsu set it off to the side, near the tools.  
“You got any theories on his death?”  
“Suicide.” Natsu’s eyes went wide.  
“You’re going straight there?”

“He’s always been depressed, Natsu, I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Things were getting worst then normal for him recently,” Sting sighed as he looked at his old friend, his own eyes full of worry. “Who’d you say was coming to see his body?”  
“Uh, his sister.” Sting let out a chuckle.  
“She’s probably pissed,” Sting let out even more laughter, almost uncontrollable laughter now. “Was Lyon contacted?” Sting asked among his laughter.  
“Lyon?” questioned Natsu.  
“His brother.” Sting bent over sideways, wiping his eyes that had slight tears coming out of them from the laughter.

“I don’t know. Homicide has all the case details right now.”  
“Not even in the file?”  
“Only said his sister had been contacted and was travelling from Crocus to see him.” Sting nodded as he held his hand out.  
“Give me the needle, I’m gonna patch him back up and we can go check on all the details, iight?” Natsu handed the needle over immediately. It was a slow process, like normally, but almost seemed to be even slower than normal to Natsu. Stitch by stitch, it seemed like time just began to get so much slower. Natsu watched Sting sowed the man up from his waist, passing a scar near to the left on the abdomen, all the way back up to both shoulders. 

“Do we still need to go over some of the files?” Natsu asked once the stitching was done.  
“What day is it again?”  
“Friday?” A groan emerged from Sting.  
“Why do we leave them all for one day to do?”  
“You’re the one who decided to work on the case files from the week all on Friday!” complained Natsu.  
“You also agreed with me to leave them until Friday!”  
“So what? You asked me if we should leave them until Friday!” Interrupting the semi-verbal fight, the door opened, revealing a familiar face behind it, holding the file on the dead body that laid upon the metal table between the two men. The man holding the files walked in a slight scowl on his face, like normal.  
“You guys just finished his autopsy?” he asked, handing new files in a new manilla file folder over to Sting. “You’re going to want to see this.” Sting opened the manilla folder, pausing for a bit.  
“What’s in the folder, Sting?” Sting, ignoring Natsu, turned to the other man in the room.  
“This is some bad news, right here.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank my beta, @ro-blaze for helping me by editing this! Thanks Monny!!!


End file.
